Kate Milligan
Camera IconKate Milligan Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Perth concert celebrates female composers

Laura PondEastern Reporter

WEST Leederville composer Kate Milligan’s commissioned work is premiering at a concert celebrating female musicians.

Ensemble Decibel will perform work by Milligan and other WA composers Amber Fresh, Erin Coates, Catherine Ashley, Rachael Dease, Olivia Davies, Cissi Tsang and Annika Moses at the Gender Diversity in Music And Art conference at UWA on July 18.

Milligan’s piece If I Told Him samples modernist poet Gertrude Stein reading her poem of the same name If I Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso, and explores the concept of gendered perspective.

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The fragmented audio is dispersed over four channels, while the instrumental writing responds to the rhythm and intonation of Stein’s reading.

Using Decibel’s full ensemble of flute, clarinet, viola, cello, percussion and electronics, it drifts between strict rhythmic and melodic phrase to durations of freedom and disconnection.

The four-day international conference will focus on vital, diverse and inspiring music and art making by women and gender-diverse artists and scholars.

The Decibel 10 at 10: WA Women of New Music (2009-2019) concert is at Callaway Auditorium at the UWA Conservatorium of Music on July 18 at 7pm.

Tickets from www.trybooking.com.au.

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